Free Across The Tracks by Xyla Turner Page A

surrogate mom. He started to open up to her, share things about his childhood that he thought were insignificant, but Tilda was able to immediately decipher why he acted the way he did. He was physically and emotionally abused by someone in authority, so he craved to please that person out of some misplaced loyalty that what they did, he deserved. What he was taught was to hate and fear what he didn’t understand. This made him a bigot and he displayed racist behavior, thus keeping himself around people just like him. Tilda surmised that he despised weak people because he was weak. Therefore he, like many of his clients, was trapped in a never-ending cycle until they decided to make intentional moves to stop. He had to break a leg and be placed with a crazy black woman, who risked her life for his before he could possibly open his mind to even hear her. However, she charged him. “Who will stand up for those other people like you, who happen to be a different color, have fewer options and are despised not among just their family or fathers, but by society?”
    At that, Tilda got up and went to bed, leaving Rich to his thoughts.
    The first person he thought of was Lisa. She stood up for her students at whatever the price, even her job, which he’d learned she lost. He tried to keep tabs by subscribing to her writing if she was ever on the news or any sort of media. He did not reach out just yet because he wanted to have something to bring to the table when he did. He had not followed up with her proposal, but she didn’t seem to be looking for him or trying to ruin his career anymore. Rich was not mentioned in any one of her articles. He figured she had moved on to bigger fish, like the school board who had fired her.
    After Tilda’s acute and accurate observation, Rich went back to work. Not actually to work, but he got access to all the files in the district attorney’s office and started making lists, phone calls and inquiring about various cases. He could have gone back to work, but they would give him a caseload, so he stayed at home to work all of his old cases. He was on the phone constantly, talking to parents, inmates, police officers and community organizations that helped people transition out of jail. He was even able to get a few cases expunged from some of his client’s records. He connected some of them with mentors to help keep track and even took a couple of them on as his students. Rich had never felt so good in his life. Tilda kept him hydrated and fed. The woman even helped with the cause and was extremely efficient and thorough. She kept him organized and filtered what he needed to cover for the day. The last four months of his hiatus had been the most productive and fulfilling he’d ever experienced. Now he could call Lisa, not only because he wanted her to know what he did, but because he wanted her to know that he finally understood now.
    He got it what she was trying to tell him six months ago.
     
     
     
     

Chapter 7: New Chapter
     
    Three Years Later:
    LISA:
    Lisa could not believe that Philadelphia had changed so much since she last lived there. It had only been two and half years since she temporarily moved to Maryland to pursue her Masters in Community Planning and Urban Development at the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). Everyone there had southern accents and they all thought she had an accent. They dressed differently as well. It was a great experience, but it was only going to be temporary since she wanted to stay in Philadelphia. She meant what she said about change being now, so she had resigned as the chair from NSPPF, but remained as an active board member. She even participated in the meetings via Skype when time allowed. She also kept writing her column for the paper and started a No Schools to Prison Pipeline chapter on the main campus of UMCP.
    She had her degree in hand and now it was time to go back to Philly so she could continue her important work. Mr. Dixon